New residential mortgage loans shrink 23.9 pct in July

By
Joao Santos Filipe

New residential mortgage loans declined 23.9 per cent during July to MOP4.19 billion from MOP5.50 billion in the previous year, Monetary Authority of Macau (AMCM) data published on Friday shows.
This decrease was mainly caused by the reduction of residential mortgage loans approved to residents, a decrease of 24.8 per cent to MOP4.05 billion from MOP5.38 billion in July 2014. In terms of share of mortgage loans, residents represent 96.7 per cent of the market. The number of loans approved to non-residents increased 20 per cent year-on-year to MOP0.14 billion from around MOP0.12 billion in 2014.
Of the total of MOP4.19 billion, new residential mortgages collateralized by uncompleted units amounted to MOP0.81 billion, a decrease of 25.2 per cent year-on-year from MOP1.03 billion. These loans include equitable loans, meaning that the lender is secured by taking possession of the uncompleted units.
Comparing the data from July with June, new residential mortgage loans increased 6.6 per cent from MOP3.93 billion, while loans collateralized by uncompleted units jumped 185.6 from MOP0.28 billion.
At the end of July, new commercial real estate loans decreased 27.8 per cent year-on-year to MOP12.62 billion from MOP17.49 billion. As with residential mortgages, the decline was driven by the residents segment.
New commercial real loans extended to locals plummeted 36 per cent to MOP9.88 billion from MOP15.43 billion in July 2014. Meanwhile, commercial loans to non-residents increased 33.4 per cent to MOP2.74 billion from MOP2.06 billion.
On a monthly basis, the new approval of commercial real estate loans increased 102.4 per cent from MOP6.24 billion, as loans to residents increased 65.3 per cent from MOP5.98 billion and loans to non-residents skyrocketed 948.7 per cent from MOP0.26 billion.
In July, the delinquency ratio for residential mortgage loans stood at 0.07 per cent, which is considered by AMCM to be ‘virtually unchanged’ from a year ago, while the ration for commercial real loans was 0.05 per cent, a decrease of 0.02 percentage points from a year ago.